In a daring operation worthy of a movie , three men escaped from a Canadian jail by helicopter , prompting a massive manhunt , authorities said .

The men escaped from a detention center Saturday night in Quebec City .

`` A helicopter touched down briefly in the courtyard before taking off with the three prisoners , '' said Ann Mathieu , a spokeswoman for Quebec Provincial Police .

`` We are talking closely with the detention center to figure out exactly how the escape transpired , '' Mathieu told CNN partner CBC . `` The priority ... is to find the helicopter . ''

A manhunt is under way for Yves Denis Yvon Lamontagne , 35 , Denis Lefebvre , 53 , and Serge Pomerleau , 49 .

The first two men were arrested in a drug bust in 2010 and were awaiting trial . Police found weapons , dozens of cars and a plane during the bust , it said . There was no information provided on the third suspect .

It marks the second brazen jail escape in Canada in a little more than a year .

In March 2013 , two men posing as tourists commandeered a helicopter from a Canadian tour company , ordered the pilot to fly over a detention center near Montreal , hoisted two inmates into the hovering aircraft using cables -- and zipped away .

It was a real `` James Bond moment , '' witness Francis Emond said about last year 's escape from the facility in Saint-Jerome , northwest of Montreal .

While spectacular , airborne escapes are not unprecedented .

Albanian inmate Alket Rizaj broke out of a maximum security prison in Greece twice -- in 2006 and 2009 .

On both occasions , accomplices swooped in to the prison 's courtyard on helicopters . Inmates then climbed aboard using rope ladders .

Both times , Rizaj was recaptured .

Last year , another prison escape in Greece tried to use the same tactic .

But the plot was foiled when the prisoner was shot and the chopper was forced to land on the prison parking lot .

In 1971 , Joel David Kaplan escaped from a Mexican jail aboard a helicopter . The New Yorker 's flight inspired the book `` The 10-Second Jailbreak : The Helicopter Escape of Joel David Kaplan '' and the 1975 movie `` Breakout . ''

And in France , Pascal Payet escaped not once , not twice , but three times from French prisons .

Each time , he was recaptured .

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Police say helicopter took off with three prisoners in Quebec City

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The men escaped from the detention center Saturday night

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Authorities are trying to get details on what happened

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It 's the second brazen jail escape in Canada in a little over a year